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Baghdad Still a Dangerous City

July 15, 2008 1:42 PM

By Jean Fievet, Producer, ABC News Baghdad

Attacks in Baghdad average about four a day, down from 43 a day in June 2007, but this is still a dangerous city.

An Iraqi ABC News employee is lucky to be alive after a mortar exploded by his car as he drove to work today. His tires were blown out, windows smashed, and lumps of shrapnel tore through the side of the vehicle.

Somehow he kept driving, and arrived at the office a bloody mess, in a state of shock, but thankfully with only a cut above the eye. Lumps of someone’s flesh were stuck to the outside of the car.

We learned later that the explosion killed one and injured six, although it’s still unclear if the mortar was fired from a distance, or was part of what the U.S. military here call an improvised explosive device (IED), otherwise known as a roadside bomb.

The likely target of the attack: nearby Iraqi traffic cops.

There are encouraging signs that Baghdad is making a recovery, but after years of extreme violence and ethnic strife, that recovery remains relative, and it’s still a far cry from any kind of normality.

Read more from Jean Fievet

July 15, 2008 in Jean Fievet | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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